1. Evaluating a Mass Notification Service for Campus Wide Communication Lori Sundal Georgia Institute of Technology EDUCAUSE Southeast Regional Conference June 3, 2008 Jacksonville, Florida

2. Evaluating a Mass Notification Service for Campus Wide Communication Copyright Lori Sundal, 2008. This work is the intellectual property of the author. Permission is granted for this material to be shared for non-commercial, educational purposes, provided that this copyright statement appears on the reproduced materials and notice is given that the copying is by permission of the author. To disseminate otherwise or to republish requires written permission from the author.

3. Evaluating a Mass Notification Service for Campus Wide Communication Overview About Georgia Tech Emergency Notification Initiative Georgia Tech Requirements Georgia Tech Implementation Georgia Tech Statistics Data Elements and Process Keys To Success

4. Evaluating a Mass Notification Service for Campus Wide Communication About Georgia Tech  One of the nation’s top research universities with around $400 million dollars in sponsored activity  College of Engineering – top 5 in graduate schools - U.S News & World Report  Fall 2007 Enrollment- 18,742 Students  Occupies 400 acres in the heart of downtown Atlanta, GA  Degrees- Architecture, Engineering, Computing, Sciences, Management, and Liberal Arts  Distinguished by commitment to improving the human condition through advanced science & technology

5. Evaluating a Mass Notification Service for Campus Wide Communication Emergency Notification Initiative One part of an overall communications plan – this is key, cannot rely on just an emergency notification system alone –emergency notifications (voice, text, email) –siren warning system (in progress) –campus cable TV alerts –campus divisions and units call plan –other (campus housing, virtual emergency operations center (EOC), campus radio, Institute home page, campus portal, off-campus media as appropriate)

6. Evaluating a Mass Notification Service for Campus Wide Communication Georgia Tech Requirements System should support delivery of messages to faculty, staff and students with no regard to the vendor/carrier providing the text message service. Individuals should not have to specify their contracted service provider. Participants should be required to register for the service and have the ability to provide multiple emergency contact numbers, to include voice, text and additionally, email. The system must support notifying campus population within an hour worst case, with a large number of campus notified in the first ten minutes of delivery. Reports on the performance of the system in delivering messages must be available.

7. Evaluating a Mass Notification Service for Campus Wide Communication Georgia Tech Requirements System must support multiple group creation and notification by group. System must be testable by GT personnel without incurring additional cost. System provider is responsible for tracking down problems identified with any testing. The information in the system must be accessible and available for internal use.

8. Evaluating a Mass Notification Service for Campus Wide Communication Georgia Tech Requirements Interfacing: Future phases must accept download of contact information for campus constituents from Banner and PeopleSoft and be able to create automatic groups based on attributes in that information. Privacy: No other use of personal information besides this function will be permitted, e.g. no advertising. The repository of all personal information for use in emergency communications must be secured according to Georgia Tech Category 4 information standards.

9. Evaluating a Mass Notification Service for Campus Wide Communication Georgia Tech’s Implementation GTENS (The Georgia Tech Emergency Notification System) Institute directive to implement emergency notification to students by Fall 2007 Developed a Web Front End to capture participant information – did not force registration Combine data with information from Banner and PeopleSoft and upload to Connect-Ed nightly All faculty, staff and students would get an email to their official GT account regardless of opt-in status

10. Evaluating a Mass Notification Service for Campus Wide Communication Data Elements and Process Currently sending to Connect-Ed ReferenceCode - gtID# for faculty, staff or student FirstName LastName ContactType – Indicating if they are faculty, staff or student MobilePhone – Cell phone number collected by Passport PrimaryPhone – equal to MobilePhone EmailAddress – official GT email address only SMSAddress – MobilePhone number if they choose to opt in to receive text messages

11. Evaluating a Mass Notification Service for Campus Wide Communication Data Elements and Process Business Criteria Students: Current students consist of students who have a valid registration record (7 days prior to class start date) for a given term/terms Staff: Employees with active job records, not future dated, with specific statuses. Affiliates are included Faculty: Faculty with active job records, not future dated, with specific statuses and employee classifications

12. Evaluating a Mass Notification Service for Campus Wide Communication Georgia Tech Statistics GTENS current statistics As of May 19, 2008, 2:04 pm: Users opting out:11,98238% Users opting in:19,68262% with SMS:11,08635% no SMS: 8,59627%

13. Evaluating a Mass Notification Service for Campus Wide Communication Keys to Success Define organization, operations and strategies Owned by our Emergency Preparedness organization within the Police Department Hold regular meetings with core team, involve students Identify specific training activities, formal and informal Develop standard operating procedures for emergency notification Develop testing strategies Develop communication strategies –Communicate, Communicate, Communicate

14. Evaluating a Mass Notification Service for Campus Wide Communication Keys to Success Keep it Simple Build along the Way Created an Auxiliary site for special groups Captured duty phones GTRI email group Proceed with caution with manual groups in Connect-Ed

15. Evaluating a Mass Notification Service for Campus Wide Communication Keys to Success Close working relationship with Blackboard/NTI Take advantage of expertise on best practices Schedule training sessions Engage BB in defining access roles for your environment Monitor / Analyze contacts and SMS data in Connect-Ed helps answer questions from constituents helps develop FAQ information helps in communication strategies for campus Ask questions Request enhancements

16. Evaluating a Mass Notification Service for Campus Wide Communication Questions and Answers